Photojournalist briefly detained in Ethiopia

Police
in Ethiopia's western region of Gambella on November 1, 2013, detained Robin Hammond, a freelance photojournalist with dual U.K. and New Zealand
citizenship, while he was on assignment for U.S. magazine National
Geographic, according to news reports and local journalists.

Officers
arrested Hammond in Gambella, accusing him of carrying more than US$4,000
without declaring the amount when he entered the country, according to the same
sources. Ethiopian customs regulations require that foreigners
entering Ethiopia declare any foreign currency in excess of US$3,000. In an interview with the U.S. government-funded international broadcaster Voice of
America, Beth Foster, a spokesman for National Geographic Society, said Hammond
was "briefly held in Gambella for a currency-related issue."

Customs
officials detained Hammond for more than seven hours before releasing him after
Anteneh Abraham, chairman of the government-controlled Ethiopian National Journalists
Union, intervened, according to local
journalists.

Hammond left Ethiopia on November 18, 2013, according to the same sources.

Hammond
had arrived in Ethiopia on October 30, 2013, on assignment to photograph commercial agricultural development in the country,
according to news reports and local journalists. Local journalists believe
he was harassed in reprisal for his efforts to speak to rural residents in Gambella about the government's
leasing of land once occupied by small-scale farmers to multinational
commercial agribusiness developers. The government's program of relocation of
small scale farmers, officially intended to improve food security, has drawn controversy following human rights groups' allegations of abusive and coercive tactics against indigenous
populations, which authorities have consistently denied, according to news
reports.